Free online course: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python

This course is the first of a two-course sequence: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, and Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science.

Together, they are designed to help people with no prior exposure to computer science or programming learn to think computationally and write programs to tackle useful problems.

Some of the people taking the two courses will use them as a stepping stone to more advanced computer science courses, but for many it will be their first and last computer science courses.

Since these courses may be the only formal computer science courses many of the students take, we have chosen to focus on breadth rather than depth.

The goal is to provide students with a brief introduction to many topics so they will have an idea of what is possible when they need to think about how to use computation to accomplish some goal later in their career.

That said, they are not "computation appreciation" courses. They are challenging and rigorous courses in which the students spend a lot of time and effort learning to bend the computer to their will.

Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python covers the notion of computation, the Python programming language, some simple algorithms, testing and debugging, and informal introduction to algorithmic complexity, and some simple algorithms and data structures.

Further details: https://www.edx.org/course/mitx/mitx-6-00-1x-introduction-computer-1841

Sign up here

School: MITx

Course Code: 6.00.1x

Classes Start: 11 Jun 2014

Course Length: 9 weeks

Estimated effort: 12 hours/week

Prerequisites: High school algebra and a reasonable aptitude for mathematics.

IMPORTANT NOTE

For a free online course aiming to prepare teachers to deliver the new National Curriculum effectively, please see the following resource instead: Free online course: Teaching Computing (part 2)